The 2017 Gamba Osaka season is Gamba Osaka's 24th season in the J1 League and 30th overall in the Japanese top flight. It will see them compete in the 18 team J1 League which has reverted to a single stage format of 34 games where each team will play the other 17 participants home and away after an unsuccessful trial of a first stage and second stage being followed by a championship playoff series. City rivals, Cerezo Osaka were promoted from J2 at the end of 2016 meaning that the two sides will play derby matches for the first time since 2014 and with neighbouring Vissel Kobe also participating in J1, Gamba will have 4 league derbies to look forward to throughout the season.

Gamba will also compete in the 2017 J. League Cup and Emperors Cup with the timing of their entry into both competitions being determined by their progress in the Champions League. As the 4th placed side in the 2016 J1 League, Gamba entered at the play off round where they faced Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim in a one-off match at Suita City Football Stadium on 7 February. Goals from Ademilson, Shun Nagasawa and Genta Miura secured a comfortable 3-0 victory and saw Gamba progress to the group stages where they were drawn in Group H along with Australian's Adelaide United, Korean side Jeju United and Chinese outfit Jiangsu Suning. Unfortunately for the second season running they were eliminated at the group stage after taking a mere 4 points from their 6 round robin games.

Prior to the commencement on the 2017 season, Gamba announced a raft of transfer dealings. Headlining the arrivals were, attacking midfielder, Jin Izumisawa, who had played a key role in Omiya Ardija's 5th-place finish in J1 the previous year where he linked well with ex-Gamba favourite Akihiro Ienaga as well as Brazilian centre-back Fabio who took the well trodden path to Osaka from Yokohama F. Marinos to provide competition for the established centre-half pairing of Daiki Niwa and Kim Jung-ya. In addition Ryota Suzuki, who had been on loan at J2 League side, Tokyo Verdy, from his parent club Yokohama F. Marinos in 2016 came in to compete with Yosuke Fujigawa and Ken Tajiri to be backup to first choice goalkeeper, Masaaki Higashiguchi. Young defender Genta Miura from newly promoted J1 side Shimizu S-Pulse and midfielder Haruya Ide from JEF United Chiba rounded off the signings who would immediately join up with the first team squad.

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Wikipedia